To have students
reconstruct a coherent, adequate technical description from scrambled
parts (as they read them aloud).
The description topic is Post-it notes,
the text parts
are sentence length (fine grained), and no figures accompany the text.

Strategy:

This is the second of several exercises in which students
use the features and signals embedded in a good technical description
to rebuild it from its scrambled parts.
In this case students are familiar with the technique from
Exercise 3,
but they must more closely attend to the internal text features and
signals because Exercise 4 involves fewer headings, no supporting
diagram, and much smaller text chunks (not whole paragraphs but just
sentences or long predicates from lists).
Exercise 4 thus refines and sharpens the same feature-recognition
skills as Exercise 1 and 2, and the same text-reconstruction
skills as Exercise 3.
(Student design of a good figure to supplement this description is one
of the extended activities below.)

POST-IT BACKGROUND:
Like paper clips, Post-It notes have an interesting back story that you
can share with students to motivate work on this technical description
(and to help them recall from
Exercise 1
the important difference between charming biographical facts and
descriptively relevant features).
A branched, four-part summary of how the unusual repositionable adhesive
developed by Spence Silver came together with the practical bookmark
needs of product designer Art Fry one day at 3M Corp. to yield the
Post-it note prototype (with subsequent "productization")
is available on the 3M company web site atwww.3m.com/us/office/postit/pastpresent/history.html.
And, just as he analyzes paper-clip evolution, engineer Henry Petroski
retells the Post-it note story in his own terms in Chapter 5
(pp. 83-86) of
The Evolution of Useful Things
(New York: Vintage Books, 1992).

HOW TO USE THIS EXERCISE:

(A) (Optional) Role Recognition.
You can use Exercise 4 for more practice in recognizing the
features of a description and their roles, if you wish. Below I provide
a student version with text (left column) and feature prompts (right
column), which you can pair with the fully annotated version to drill
role recognition (as with earlier descriptive exercises).
I prefer to use this exercise for text reconstruction, however (next).

(B) Text Reconstruction (Background).
If you have not used text reconstruction before, see the discussion
of its linguistic basis and work-relevant "authenticity" in the Strategy
section of Exercise 3
(teacher version).

(C) Text Reconstruction (Process).
Below I provide a "segmented" version of the student
description of the Post-it note.
It has the same text (without the scaffolding) as before, but marks (---)
divide it into 16 sentence- (or predicate-)sized chunks.
The descriptive
chunks omit the headings, which appear in a separate short
list for you to use
as the project outline.
Although much shorter than in Exercise 3,
the text chunks still contain
important signals or rhetorical clues about each chunk's
intended role in and contribution to the overall description.

Print out
the segmented version of the Post-it description and cut it into pieces
(of paper) along the marks (---) indicated.

Enlarge
each text chunk on a photocopy machine for easier in-class reading and
sharing.
Alternatively, use less enlargement and reassemble the description on
a big table.

Scramble
the text pieces so that their original order is hidden.

Distribute
the (enlarged) text chunks randomly, one to each student (or perhaps
to each pair of students).

Read each piece aloud
and try to find its best place. Use its internal rhetorical features
(as mentioned on the guidelines) as clues and the list of headings
as an organizing "target" framework, a broad outline of
the intended result. Student discussion may perform most of this work
in some classes; you will need to provide considerable leadership and
encouragement in others since this is valuable but unfamiliar territory
for many students. In some cases, even reading their text chunk aloud
for classmates to consider may challenge the student who holds it.

Post
each text chunk on a wall or blackboard (with little pieces of tape or
Post-it notes) as students decide on its preliminary role and place.
But don't tape the paper sheets to each other unless you can easily
undo them, because changing the order and grouping
is a natural and
appropriate part of reconstructing the whole description from its
parts.

Adapt
the growing description as new pieces of the puzzle are read and
reviewed. As in real life, first guesses may need to be revised to
accommodate later arriving chunks of text that clarify the overall
structure of the description that you are (re)building.

Review
the emerging whole as the last pieces fall into place, as you would
with any puzzle. This approach enables students, cooperatively, to
"write" a long, complex technical description using important,
real-world design principles (the
guidelines),
without having to compose each separate piece of prose. It shows
"actively" how the pieces of a good description have features that
knit together to form a coherent pattern intended to help readers use
the text well. Since the students must focus on those same text features
to rebuild the description, they come to see why writers bother to
deploy them.

Case:

Student version [headings only, for outline]:

Description Case 4: Post-it Note
Overview
The Paper
The Adhesive

Student version [with scaffolding]:

Description Case 4: Post-it Note
Description Analysis
Overview
A Post-it note is an easy way FEATURE:
to temporarily annotate a WHY:
document by applying a small
square of colorful, durable
paper using a strip of
repositionable adhesive on the
back of the note.
The Paper FEATURE:
WHY:
The most common Post-it notes
are 1.5-by-2-inch rectangles
of nonwhite (usually yellow)
paper available in pads of 100.
However, 55 larger sizes and
shapes (up to poster size) are
also available.
Post-it paper is well suited to FEATURE:
making reliable notes because it: WHY:
(1) does not tear or fray easily,
even after repeated uses,
(2) is highly opaque, resisting FEATURE:
bleed-through from ink or WHY:
felt-tip pens, and
(3) comes in 29 colors that
visually contrast with the
document pages to which the
notes are applied.
The Adhesive
The adhesive that holds the note
to its target page lies in a
half-inch strip along the top
edge of the back of each Post-it.
Post-it adhesive consists of FEATURE:
tiny sticky spheres that do not WHY:
easily dissolve or melt, and
that have about the same diameter
as the paper fibers they touch.
This adhesive therefore combines
several unusual properties.
First, the adhesive is clear and FEATURE:
thinner than standard plastic WHY:
mounting tape.
Second, unlike an adhesive FEATURE:
bandage, it leaves no residue on WHY:
the page to which the Post-it is
applied.
Third, the adhesive is long-
lasting while undisturbed;
Post-it notes will cling for
months (at room temperature)
before falling off their applied
surfaces.
And fourth, the adhesive is also
reusable.
A clean Post-it may be removed
and reapplied in the same or a
different location dozens of
times before the adhesive strip
fails to hold the note to its FEATURE:
target (unlike most tape). WHY:
Art Fry of 3M Corp. first FEATURE:
developed the Post-it note in WHY:
1980.

Student version [segmented, no scaffolding or headings]:

Description Case 4: Post-it Note
---
A Post-it note is an easy way
to temporarily annotate a
document by applying a small
square of colorful, durable
paper using a strip of
repositionable adhesive on the
back of the note.
---
The most common Post-it notes
are 1.5-by-2-inch rectangles
of nonwhite (usually yellow)
paper available in pads of 100.
---
However, 55 larger sizes and
shapes (up to poster size) are
also available.
---
Post-it paper is well suited to
making reliable notes because it:
---
(1) does not tear or fray easily,
even after repeated uses,
---
(2) is highly opaque, resisting
bleed-through from ink or
felt-tip pens, and
---
(3) comes in 29 colors that
visually contrast with the
document pages to which the
notes are applied.
---
The adhesive that holds the note
to its target page lies in a
half-inch strip along the top
edge of the back of each Post-it.
---
Post-it adhesive consists of
tiny sticky spheres that do not
easily dissolve or melt, and
that have about the same diameter
as the paper fibers they touch.
---
This adhesive therefore combines
several unusual properties.
---
First, the adhesive is clear and
thinner than standard plastic
mounting tape.
---
Second, unlike an adhesive
bandage, it leaves no residue on
the page to which the Post-it is
applied.
---
Third, the adhesive is long-
lasting while undisturbed;
Post-it notes will cling for
months (at room temperature)
before falling off their applied
surfaces.
---
And fourth, the adhesive is also
reusable.
---
A clean Post-it may be removed
and reapplied in the same or a
different location dozens of
times before the adhesive strip
fails to hold the note to its
target (unlike most tape).
---
Art Fry of 3M Corp. first
developed the Post-it note in
1980.
---

Annotated version:

Description Case 4: Post-it Note
Description Analysis
Overview
A Post-it note is an easy way FEATURE: overview
to temporarily annotate a WHY: show role
document by applying a small
square of colorful, durable
paper using a strip of
repositionable adhesive on the
back of the note.
The Paper FEATURE: parts
WHY: show role(s), relations
The most common Post-it notes
are 1.5-by-2-inch rectangles
of nonwhite (usually yellow)
paper available in pads of 100.
However, 55 larger sizes and
shapes (up to poster size) are
also available.
Post-it paper is well suited to FEATURE: specifics
making reliable notes because it: WHY: relevant to use
(1) does not tear or fray easily,
even after repeated uses,
(2) is highly opaque, resisting FEATURE: comparison (implicit)
bleed-through from ink or WHY: show role(s)
felt-tip pens, and
(3) comes in 29 colors that
visually contrast with the
document pages to which the
notes are applied.
The Adhesive
The adhesive that holds the note
to its target page lies in a
half-inch strip along the top
edge of the back of each Post-it.
Post-it adhesive consists of FEATURE: specifics
tiny sticky spheres that do not WHY: relevant to making
easily dissolve or melt, and
that have about the same diameter
as the paper fibers they touch.
This adhesive therefore combines
several unusual properties.
First, the adhesive is clear and FEATURE: comparison (overt)
thinner than standard plastic WHY: relevant to use
mounting tape.
Second, unlike an adhesive FEATURE: contrast
bandage, it leaves no residue on WHY: relevant to use
the page to which the Post-it is
applied.
Third, the adhesive is long-
lasting while undisturbed;
Post-it notes will cling for
months (at room temperature)
before falling off their applied
surfaces.
And fourth, the adhesive is also
reusable.
A clean Post-it may be removed
and reapplied in the same or a
different location dozens of
times before the adhesive strip
fails to hold the note to its FEATURE: contrast
target (unlike most tape). WHY: relevant to use
Art Fry of 3M Corp. first FEATURE: omit this!
developed the Post-it note in WHY: irrelevant
1980.

Besides the primary activities explained above, you can have students
pursue secondary activities with the descriptive text of
Exercise 4.
See Exercise 3
for general suggestions also applicable here.

POSSIBLE FIGURES.
Because Exercise 4 has no supporting illustration, you can have students
explore text-graphics integration by asking them to:
(A) develop (sketch) one or more possible figures for this description,
or
(B) compare the relative merits of several possible figures that you
offer for this description.

Because Post-it notes are so visually simple, mere photographs or
drawings of the product (as for advertising) add little or no value
to the descriptive text.
(See the comments about drawn technical art near the start of the
Strategy notes for
Exercise 2.)
Explanatory diagrams are what we need.
Consider a drawing that shows the adhesive strip limited to the top
back portion of each Post-it sheet (this explains why you can easily
remove Post-its: they only stick along one edge, by design).
Or consider a drawing that shows the spheres of adhesive clinging to
gaps in criss-crossed paper fibers about as big as the adhesive particles
(this shows how the repositionable adhesive works).
If you or a colleague (or a student) can sketch and share such possible
supporting figures, you can focus student attention on why technical
art, like technical text, needs careful design to really help readers.

This exercise most closely supports the following Common Core State Standards.
Reading:
Grades 6-8, RST6-8.1 "Cite specific textual evidence to support
analysis of science and technical texts."
Grades 6-8, RST6-8.5, "Analyze the structure an author uses to
organize a text, including how the major sections contribute to the
whole and to an understanding of the topic."

Writing:
Grades 11-12, W11-12.2b, "Write informative/explanatory texts...develop
the topic thoroughly by selecting the most significant and relevant
facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or
other information and examples appropriate to the audience's
knowledge of the topic."
Grades 11-12, W11-12.2c, "Use appropriate and varied transitions
and syntax to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion,
and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts."